London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Friday, Sep 19, 2025

Princess Beatrice 'wedding gift' claim in court case

Princess Beatrice 'wedding gift' claim in court case

A Turkish millionaire claims her payment to Prince Andrew was falsely described as a wedding gift for his daughter Princess Beatrice.

Nehebat Isbilen is claiming at the High Court in London that her business adviser Selman Turk "dishonestly misappropriated" £38m of her assets.

Mrs Isbilen paid £750,000 to Prince Andrew and claims Mr Turk had wrongly told her bank it was a wedding gift.

There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by Princess Beatrice or Prince Andrew.

The Duke of York has now returned the £750,000 to Mrs Isbilen.

Mr Turk has rejected the allegations made against him.

Tracking down her money


This complex court case revolves around accusations that Mrs Isbilen's money was fraudulently used by her business adviser, Mr Turk.

Mrs Isbilen, aged 77, is from a wealthy Turkish business family, but when her politician husband was jailed she wanted advice on moving her assets out of Turkey.

Prince Andrew has returned £750,000


But the High Court has heard accusations that Mr Turk "misappropriated" her assets - and her lawyers have been trying to track down and recover her money.

According to court papers, this revealed that "substantial sums" had been paid to Prince Andrew and Sarah, Duchess of York.

Mrs Isbilen claims Mr Turk advised her to make a "gift" of £750,000 to Prince Andrew, which she was misled into believing was for assistance with her passport.

This amount was transferred from her account on 15 November 2019.

"The representation that Mrs Isbilen needed to make a gift to the Duke of York in connection with her passport [or for any other purpose] was false," says her legal team in their claim of dishonesty against Mr Turk.

But Mrs Isbilen's testimony in an affidavit also says that she saw an email from Mr Turk to her bank explaining the £750,000 payment as being a "wedding gift" for the Duke of York's daughter, Prince Beatrice.

This claim was "entirely false" says Mrs Isbilen in her affidavit.

A week before the payment by Mrs Isbilen, Mr Turk's firm had also been a winner of an award at the Pitch at the Palace business initiative, headed by Prince Andrew.

Representatives of Prince Andrew have not commented on the ongoing court case.

A spokesman for the Duchess of York said: "The duchess was completely unaware of the allegations that have since emerged against Mr Turk. She is naturally concerned by what has been alleged against him."

More payments


The court has heard claims of further payments to the Duke and Duchess of York, via a company called Alphabet Capital.

According to court documents, about £900,000 of Mrs Isbilen's money was paid into this company in two payments, despite her claim: "I did not know about or authorise either of these payments."

This company then made payments to Prince Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah, with Peters and Peters, the law firm representing Mrs Isbilen, claiming Prince Andrew received £350,000.

The discovery of payments to Prince Andrew emerged after a court order allowed a search of Mr Turk's financial dealings.

Court papers show that some of the expenditure had been attributed by Mr Turk to professional costs and unsuccessful investments, but there were claims of significant amounts still to be explained.

Jonathan Tickner, Mrs Isbilen's lawyer, said she had been "the victim of serious fraud and financial wrongdoing", and was determined to pursue her claim against all those involved.

Court documents show that Mr Turk has disputed the allegations and disagrees with Mrs Isbilen's understanding of how her assets have been handled.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
DeepSeek Claims R1 Model Trained for only $294,000, Sparking Global Debate Over China’s AI Capabilities
SoftBank Vision Fund to Cut Nearly Twenty Percent of Staff in Bold AI Strategy Shift
Intel’s Next-Gen Manufacturing Gets a Lifeline from Nvidia’s Strategic $5B Deal
Erika Kirk Elected CEO of Turning Point USA After Husband Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
Massive Strikes in France Pressure Macron and New PM on Austerity Proposals
Trump Seeks Supreme Court Permission to Remove Fed Governor Lisa Cook
Hillary Clinton’s Reckless Rhetoric Fuels Division After Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
NASDAQ Rises to Record as Intel Soars More Than 20%, Nvidia Gains 3%
Nvidia’s $5 Billion Bet on Intel Reshapes AI Hardware Landscape
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Trump’s Quip on Biden and Google Lawsuit Revives Debate Over Antitrust Legacy
Macron and his wife to provide 'scientific photographic evidence' that she is a real woman
US Tech Giants Pledge Billions to UK AI Infrastructure Following Starmer's Call
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
DeepMind and OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’ in AI Milestone
SEC Allows Public Companies to Block Investors from Class-Action Lawsuits
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by Quarter Point and Signals More to Come
Effective and Impressive Generation Z Protest: Images from the Riots in Nepal
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Trump: Cancel quarterly company reports and settle for reporting once every six months
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
US Launches New Pilot Program to Accelerate eVTOL Air Taxi Deployment
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
Kash Patel erupts at ‘buffoon’ Sen. Adam Schiff over Russiagate: ‘You are the biggest fraud’
Homeland Security says Emmy speech ‘fanning the flames of hatred’ after Einbinder’s ‘F— ICE’ remark
Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Assassin Tyler Robinson Faces Death Penalty as Charges Formally Announced
Actor, director, environmentalist Robert Redford dies at 89
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
JD Vance Says There Is “No Unity” with Those Who Celebrate Charlie Kirk’s Killing, and he is right!
Trump sues the 'New York Times' for an astronomical sum of 15 billion dollars
Florida Hospital Welcomes Its Largest-Ever Baby: Annan, Nearly Fourteen Pounds at Birth
U.S. and Britain Poised to Finalize Over $10 Billion in High-Tech, Nuclear and Defense Deals During Trump State Visit
China Finds Nvidia Violated Antitrust Laws in Mellanox Deal, Deepens Trade Tensions with US
US Air Force Begins Modifications on Qatar-Donated Jet Amid Plans to Use It as Air Force One
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
Elon Musk Retakes Lead as World’s Richest After Brief Ellison Surge
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
London Daily Podcast: London Massive Pro Democracy Rally, Musk Support, UK Economic Data and Premier League Results Mark Eventful Weekend
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Musk calls for new UK government at huge pro-democracy rally in London, but Britons have been brainwashed to obey instead of fighting for their human rights
Elon Musk responds to post calling for the murder of Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk: 'Either we fight back or they will kill us'
×